


Carry You (or, alternately, The Fic Where Andrew is Bigger Than Everyone Else)

by nekojita



Series: Dragon!Andrew [4]
Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Andrew is a little different here, Arranged Marriage, Curses, Dragons, Implied Violence, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, Shapeshifting, bribery through lousy baking, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 06:28:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8152322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekojita/pseuds/nekojita
Summary: It's the well known fairy tale with the lovely princess trapped in the lair by the evil dragon, and the brave knights who risk their lives to save her on the behest of her beloved prince.Except the dragon isn't quite so evil as it's cursed, the lovely princess is a bit tattered and actually a prince (well, engaged to a prince he's having none of) and a runaway, and not too bad at looking after himself. The lair is a rundown castle, most of the knights aren't that brave (there's a few exceptions), and the beloved prince is is anything but beloved.In other words, Neil and Andrew and a few other Foxes in a magical world, dealing with magic and a stubborn curse.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iMOCKusALL](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iMOCKusALL/gifts).



> So, iMOCKusALL gave me a prompt along the lines of dragons and Neil being the (lovely) prince locked up in its lair, and Riko sending troops after him but Neil deciding he much preferred the dragon (yeah, that's rather abbreviated, I know). It stemmed for a line in my Armies' fic about Neil/Abram thinking of Andrew as a small, golden dragon. So I took it and ran with it and this is what you get. I almost waited until tomorrow to post it for a Wednesday post, but I'll probably be busy packing for AWA so yeah, here you go. I hope it's mostly what you wanted.
> 
> I had a lot of fun with this and the whole magical premise, and it's rather open-ended, so who knows, if enough people like it, there may be more.  
> *******

*******

Neil sighed as he surveyed the larder off of the huge kitchen, the dwindling supplies on the wooden shelves. It would be so nice if he could just go to the nearest village market and get the things himself... but it wasn’t happening that day. Still, there were enough supplies for at least a few more days, so he would just have to make do until then. A certain overprotective tyrant would ensure that he made do until then.

Mindful of said overprotective tyrant sleeping a couple of rooms over, Neil grabbed a cloth bag which he slung across his chest and a large basket, then slipped outside of the stone castle which had turned into his home despite his intentions almost two years ago. The grey facade blended into the mountain that it had been built into, since the stone walls and roof were made of the same rough granite as the mountain; it wasn't a grand building or one meant to inspire awe or tales of romance, but an outpost from some long ago war and so abandoned these past several centuries. The hills around it had some neglected plum, pear and apple groves that had helped to feed the troops once stationed there, the latter two into which Neil went to take advantage of on the early cool autumn morning, the hood of his jerkin pulled up over his head and his feet bare despite the chill in the air and the dew clinging to the blades of grass. He'd spend most of his time up in the trees, anyway, and it was a bother to keep taking his boots on and off.

He'd filled the bag with apples and had the basket mostly filled with pears, mindful of the sun rising in the sky, of the danger the growing light brought to him, of waking dragons and what could happen to him if he was caught outside the protection of the castle. With all of that in mind, he grabbed just a few more pears and was climbing down the tree so he could reach the familiar safety of home when a prickling sensation made him dodge to the left all of a sudden, toward the safety of a holly bush. Too many years of running, of being hunted, for him to ignore those instincts, even if the last couple had been spent in relative safety. A moment later, an arrow whizzed past where he'd been standing.

"Dammit, that was supposed to knock you out, you know," a sullen voice called out, right before a young man dressed in the brown and beige reinforced leathers of an unaligned knight stepped away from the ancient plum tree he'd been hiding behind. "Could only afford the one."

Neil hated the assholes who tried to talk to him during these kidnapping attempts, especially the ones who complained when things didn't go their way. "Look, I'm going to say this once - get the hell out of here while you can, all right?" He looked up at the sky, at the sun, did a mental calculation of the time and winced. Oh yeah, any minute now.

"No," the young knight argued as he pulled out another – that time normal - arrow to knock it in his bow and glared at Neil as if everything was his fault. "I've spent the last three days camped out here, lost fifteen gold on that arrow, and need the reward for rescuing your lame ass. So step on out now." When Neil didn't move, he made an annoyed sound. "Come on, you're out here for a reason, right? Who doesn't want to get away from some man-eating dragon?"

An embarrassed flush came over Neil's face. "That's... not exactly what's going on here." Not quite. "I keep telling you idiots that. I'm fine, so go find someone else who really did get kidnapped and save them, all right?"

"Wow, you're really messed up, aren't you? But that's not my problem, Prince Riko can find some healer or mage to undo whatever spell that dragon put you under." The knight took another step forward, his gaze intent on Neil.

Hearing _that_ bastard's name made Neil's temper flare up, and he peeked out around the bush just enough to start throwing mostly ripe pears at the asshole. "There's no damn spell, how often do I have to tell you morons that! Just leave me the hell alone!" The knight yelled as he was pelted with fruit, the nocked arrow flying off to the side at his surprise, and then his expression turned murderous.

"Okay, fuck the 'friendly' approach, Prince Riko's going to get you back a bit bruised and battered at this point," the knight snarled as he dropped the bow and pulled out his short sword. Neil set the basket of pears down and prepared to run - there was no way the knight would be able to catch him, not on this mountain, not while wearing all that reinforced leather and probably a few more weapons tucked away.

That and all the noise had to be waking a certain dragon.

Neil threw a couple more pears, annoyed to be losing his hard work like that, then turn and ran as soon as the knight was a couple more feet away from his discarded bow. He got cursed at for that, and let out a yelp when a thrown dagger barely missed him, but didn't slow down. Especially when there was a familiar 'whooshing' sound in the air, a spot of darkness overtaking the sun, and a loud cry of panic behind him.

He groaned when something scaly, supple and golden wrapped around him to yank him from his feet, Andrew's prehensile tail lifting him up the same time that the bastard landed on the ground with more grace than a large dragon as long as about ten horses put end to end, from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. He curled up on the ground and held Neil dangling in front of his triangular head for a moment, brilliant hazel eyes glowing with something akin to annoyance, before he settled Neil between his front legs with extended razor sharp claws on his paws and still loosely wrapped by his tail. /Another idiot knight? They taste bad,/ Andrew said, his deep voice rumbling inside of Neil's head - and the knight's, too, considering how the man cowered even more.

"Not funny," Neil chided his lover. "You're not helping things!" He got the tip of Andrew's tail waved in front of his face and sputtered.

/What's the 'reward' up to now, hmm?/ When the knight didn't say anything, Andrew let out a puff of smoke. /How much?/

"Seven hundred, dammit!" The knight yelled.  "Double that if we can prove we killed you, too, you freak of nature!"

Neil felt cold upon hearing that; it was bad enough that Riko refused to let him go, that he spread those awful lies, but now he was trying to take Andrew away from him permanently? "No," he moaned.

Andrew was still for a moment, and then he unfurled his tail from around Neil. /Go back to the castle,/ he ordered.

"But what are-"

/Go,/ Andrew repeated, this time with a small flame to reinforce the command.

"Fine," Neil said, more than a bit sullen himself. He didn't spare the knight another glance, just smacked his right hand against his boyfriend's smooth yet indestructible hide before he marched off, back the way he'd run. As he left, there was the sound of garbled pleading, followed by a distinctly displeased roar.

He picked up the charmed arrow, its point rounded and the entire thing thrumming with magic because 'waste not want not' had been drilled into his head by his mother, especially in regards to magical items, and then the basket of pears because someone was going to be in a lousy mood later. Then he returned to the castle, some of his own foul mood fading as he passed the familiar wards that protected the place.

About half of the apples were peeled by the time Andrew returned, just fitting into the spacious kitchen meant to feed battalions of troops; Neil was sitting on the worn, wooden counter as he worked, since there weren't any tables in the room because of Andrew's need to wander about. It made for an odd living arrangement, but he'd rather his lover be able to roam about than have a more conventional home. Though really, Neil wasn't sure he could ever lay claim to something like that.

/Ugh, I don't think he bathed in the last few days,/ Andrew complained.

"You didn't!" Neil protested as he set aside the mostly peeled apple in his hand and stared at his lover in appalled shock. Yeah, kill the moron, but eat him?

/Relax, I just had to carry him by the teeth since he was such a heavy bastard,/ Andrew explained as he used his tail to pick up Neil and set him on his feet. /Dropped him in the lake after convincing him that if he steps foot on this mountain again, he'll lose more than all his hair and a layer or two of skin./

"Good." Despite the rumors of Andrew being a 'man-eating' dragon, they were just that - rumors. Neil had a feeling that most of the neighboring kingdoms and bigger villages ignored them because there was no valid proof that Andrew went out of his way to harm the villages around them or killed the knights sent to rescue Neil. Though that might change if Riko kept upping the reward for Neil and put too big a price on Andrew's head.

/If you're so happy about it, do something about this awful taste,/ Andrew offered. /And what were you doing out in the first place?/ He gave the back of Neil's legs a light whap.

"We're running low on supplies, so I went out for some fruit," Neil explained as he stumbled forward because of the ‘tap’. "If you're going to be a pain about it, no pies tonight." As he thought, that shut up a certain dragon in a hurry; since Andrew spent so much of his time in a form that wasn't conducive to tasks which required any type of manual dexterity, all the cooking and baking fell onto Neil. Which wasn't that good of a thing - Neil could manage the basics, but he got the impression from the time or two that Nicky and Aaron tried his baking, that he still hadn't figured out the sugar to spice ratio just yet. Odd how pies and cakes were so much more difficult than the potions and poisons his mother had taught him... but then again, his life didn't depend on baked goods. Oh well, Andrew enjoyed his attempts, though Andrew enjoyed anything made out of sugar. Neil would think that the curse had turned him into half honey-bee or something, but Nicky had assured Neil that his cousin had always been like that.

Keeping in mind that it probably would be at least another day or two before Nicky and Aaron returned to the castle with more supplies for them, Neil grabbed a couple of loaves of bread, some honey and a jar of preserves, which he carried out to the kitchen.  Once there, he sliced the bread in half while Andrew hovered behind him, large head almost resting on his shoulder, spread the honey and apple preserves on the halves then got out of the way before the snacks were all but inhaled. "Better?" he asked as he jumped up on the counter again.

All Andrew did by way of answer was set his head - well, most of it - on Neil's lap in a silent invitation for Neil to scratch his nose; it was interesting how much more open Andrew was to 'touch' in his dragon form, but then, Neil was the only one who got to touch him like this, who wanted to touch him. /Pies later?/

"Yes, if you let me get back to peeling everything," Neil said, though he was in no hurry to stop with the scratching. It felt good, to have Andrew near like this, especially after that asshole knight. He didn't understand why people couldn't just leave them alone, couldn't find some other person to rescue, but he supposed Riko's money was a powerful incentive.

/Hurry up, there's still a few chapters left in the one book,/ Andrew reminded him.

"Such a slave driver," Neil complained as he gave Andrew's heavy head a shove. That got him a faceful of smoke for his troubles, but the bastard finally left him in peace to go laze about in a sunbeam or something equally annoying, after starting up the ovens.

The pies assembled and left to bake, Neil cajoled his boyfriend to heat up some of the gathered rainwater so he could wash off before he changed into clean clothes and then curled up in a nest of pillows in the huge banquet hall off of the kitchen, tucked up against Andrew's warm, golden side as he read aloud from one of the books that Aaron had brought them on his last visit; the story didn't capture his attention that much, but Andrew loved reading. It had been one more thing taken from him by the curse, and one more thing Neil could give back in return for his new home, for the safety and companionship and that cherished, precious feeling he'd found in the castle not long after his arrival almost two winters ago. When he'd been at the end of his strength and almost his will to live, had fled up the mountain because of an old story he'd remembered his mother telling him, unafraid of some odd rumors he’d heard about a dragon because of a much more real, terrible monster chasing him down.

A monster much too close on his heels, a monster about to catch up and drag him back to the Raven's Nest, that awful castle decked out in red and black, that he'd barely managed to escape from a few months before. He would rather face a dragon and end up that fabled beast's dinner than return there, wrapped in enspelled chains to quiet his magic and remaining will. So when he'd found the abandoned castle, he'd felt such a rush of relief, and when he'd found the rumored dragon as well, glowing golden in the dark with hazel cat's eyes that gleamed with an odd type of intelligence, he'd just laughed, broken and done and oddly pleased that Riko wouldn't get him in the end. Only to hear a bored voice in his head ask if he had anything good in his small travel bag to eat and tell him that he sounded annoying, that if he was going to stick around to keep to the upper levels where the floors were too weak to support the dragon's weight.

As terrible as things had been back then, Neil was grateful that he had been too exhausted and wounded to do more than creep up to those offered floors, to cower there among the ruined furniture and rotting rugs as he waited to see who would claim him first, the dragon or Riko's people. Because it had been a genuine turning point in his life, the first time he’d been safe in so very, very long even if it took him a couple of weeks to realize it.

Neil managed to get through a few more chapters of the book before he had to go fetch the pies out of the oven, one of which was inhaled on the spot by a gluttonous dragon, and then fixed a simple dinner of sweet bread for Andrew and plain bread, fruit and cheese for himself. Tomorrow he'd see about catching a few fish for something a bit more substantial, as long as Andrew could tag along. But it was enough to tide him over for the night, so he grabbed one of the remaining jugs of strong spirits they had remaining in the larder before they left the kitchen.

With the sun finally setting, they made their way over to the large chamber that was their bedroom, and as soon as the sun disappeared over the horizon, Neil felt the familiar rush of magic as a golden glow suffused the room and Andrew's dragon form melted away to reveal his lover's much, much smaller human body. Doing his best to look away before the spell faded, he allowed Andrew a moment of privacy to adjust to the change and grab the robe folded at the foot of their bed to cover his returned form, and smiled a minute later when strong, human arms wrapped around him. They lingered just for a couple of seconds before the jug was tugged from his hands.

He smiled as he watched Andrew take a few swallows of the alcohol, wrapped in the black robe and face emotionless. Neil sat on their bed and shivered a little; the castle was drafty, as befitted its age and rundown state. It wasn't bad during the day when Andrew was in dragon form, but Neil was grateful when his lover set the jug aside and went over to the large fireplace near their bed to start a fire; part of the whole damn curse lay with his very powerful affinity with the element.

"Thank you," Neil said when Andrew picked up the jug and came over to the bed - more a couple of feather mattresses piled on the stone floor - Nicky and Aaron had managed to weaken the curse enough that Andrew could revert back to his human form for a few hours once the sun went down, but it wasn't for a full night as of yet. Yet. Andrew's family seemed to buy them more time during each of their visits, but until then, Andrew and Neil went without a proper bed. Again, Neil wasn't going to complain, since he had spent the first five months or so living with Andrew stuck in just dragon form, so any improvement seemed like a huge gift.

"So useless, you are," Andrew mocked as he fell back onto the pillows stacked against the stone wall.

"Yeah, I'll remember that when it comes time to renew the wards around this place," Neil shot back as he did his best not to stretch out beside the bastard; it was difficult to keep dragon Andrew and human Andrew separate sometimes - how he could rest against Andrew's dragon form to soak in that wonderful warmth, how dragon Andrew often pulled him close to make sure he was safe, driven on by that form's instincts, while human Andrew needed more space, especially after returning to his real form. Neil knew that Andrew would be better after regaining his mental balance, but they had so little time together it hurt, this distance. But it was what his lover needed.

"And I'll remember that the next time you have a knight trying to drag you off," Andrew said, his voice flat and face almost expressionless, except for that eerie glow in his eyes, a reminder that the curse was still lingering in his body and waiting for the sun to come round close enough to force its will back on Andrew; Neil felt a strong wave of hatred for the mage who had cursed his lover, who had been unwilling to see the justice in Andrew's albeit violent reaction in saving his cousin.

So with proof of that curse lingering inside of Andrew, of the stress it put on the older man as well as Neil's own fucked up situation, Neil took a deep breath and didn't lash out over what Andrew had just said, didn't take the words to heart even though they had hurt. "What do you want me to do? You know what my parents taught me." Neil's magical repertoire wasn't anything as practical as Andrew's, or helpful like Nicky's and Aaron's. The least dangerous aspect of it was Neil's ability to cast illusions, but that cost him a lot of energy, while the destructive magic from his father's side... yeah. He'd be happy if he never had another use for those spells again.

Things were quiet between them while Andrew had some more of the potent local brew, then set the jug down on the floor before reaching for Neil. "Yes or no?" he asked as he gave a slight tug to the back of Neil's neck.

Neil smiled at that. "Yes," he said as he crawled across the distance between them, as he hesitated a moment until Andrew pulled him close enough for a kiss. Neil could taste the potency of the local spirit, some sort of apple brandy, but he could also taste an odd coppery tang that was always there when he kissed Andrew, a metallic, magical bite. He moaned a little as he settled on his lover’s lap, hands light as they rested on Andrew’s shoulders, as he waited to see how far his lover wanted for them to go that night. After a day being forced into a body not his own, of having his life and being subverted by someone else’s magic… Andrew needed control, needed to know that no one was taking anything from him for those precious few hours when he was as back to normal as possible.

Yet he allowed Neil to stroke fingers along his neck, to gently grasp his blond hair and kiss him, to savor that metallic tang and the feel of solidness that Neil associated with safety, with home and comfort and everything that had become good in his life, no matter what form Andrew was in. Neil laughed a little when there was an impatient growl, so similar in both of his lover’s forms, and then his tops were tugged up and off, leaving his hair falling onto his eyes before Andrew gave him a push until he tumbled onto his back. He’d just pushed aside the reddish curls so he could enjoy the view of Andrew undoing that black robe, of the sight of that broad chest being exposed, before Andrew stretched out over him.

Warm, calloused hands stroked along Neil’s chest, mindful of the scars left by Neil’s father and the men he’d sent after Neil and his mother when they’d run from his father’s court, and then later by Riko after Lord Nathan Wesninski had finally tracked Neil down and handed him over to his ‘betrothed’. Neil had always hated them, had always wasted precious magic and energy hiding them… until Andrew. Now he could concentrate on the pleasure his lover’s touch stirred in him, in how his breath caught when Andrew leaned in closer as his hands tugged on the ties holding Neil’s pants above his hips. “Yes?”

“Oh hell yes,” Neil assured him as he struggled not to yank the torturous bastard down. Soon enough his patience was rewarded, the pants pulled off and tossed aside, and Neil tugged onto his side as Andrew stretched out beside him, mouth skimming down his neck while his lover’s hands stroked along both of their cocks. Neil arched his neck as his fingers dug into Andrew’s shoulder, into Andrew’s hair, and let his lover tear him apart with the pleasure growing stronger and stronger inside of him, growing powerful enough to overwhelm him as he stared into gleaming hazel eyes and the sense of magic pressed all around him – of hot copper metal and cool mist with a hint of roses and tree resin tainted with rot. Neil lost himself in it, let it sweep over him, let the magic and pleasure consume him, and lay there stuttering for breath when Andrew buried his too-warm face against Neil’s neck soon enough and trembled against him as he came as well.

Neil felt sated enough at the moment to just fall asleep right then, the heavy body sprawled on top of him aside (hmm, Andrew was so nice and warm), but a certain bastard had to move and then yank him onto his feet to wash off (at least he heated up the water first, so no trying out one of those potions Neil’s mother had taught him just yet). After returning to the bed and adding the one blanket to the growing pile of laundry that _Neil_ was stuck with, since he was the only one with hands full-time (rather unfair, considering how much time dragon Andrew lazed about during the day), they finally went to bed.

The flare of magic woke Neil up, as it always did, of Andrew groaning as he crawled onto the floor while the curse resumed, his dragon form taking over once again. Neil gave him a couple of minutes to adjust then dragged one of the blankets along with him as he went over to the curled up form, smacked aside the flicking tail and made himself comfortable against Andrew's surprisingly soft side beneath a wing. The feel of Andrew's wing laying over him, the sound of Andrew's thunderous heartbeat beneath his ear and the soft rise and fall of as his lover breathed in and out lulled Neil back to sleep just as much as the sense of security the golden form he slept against provided.

The next two days were quiet, with Neil fishing and doing the damn laundry the one day while Andrew lazed about behind him, and then both of them holed up in the castle while it poured down rain the next, Neil reading books in-between Andrew's naps. The third day they were relieved when Nicky and Aaron showed up, since the larder was running dangerously low and Neil only risked going into one of the nearby villages when absolutely necessary.

"Did you miss us?" Nicky asked as he gave Neil a hug, which Neil suffered through for a few seconds until Andrew huffed out a large plume of smoke, which Aaron waved aside while giving his shape-shifted twin an annoyed look.

"It has been rather quiet with you gone," Neil admitted; he sometimes missed Nicky's sunny personality when the mage was gone... and then was relieved when Nicky and Aaron left, because he could only take so much of Nicky's non-stop chatter and Aaron's sullen presence. He knew they were doing their best to cure Andrew, that they traveled all over looking for something to break the curse... but there was still the fact that Nicky was so different from the identical twins and that the brothers had several issues to work through, issues that weren't helped by the fact that they had the curse between them and barely spent any time together.

Still, Neil helped the two young men bring in the supplies from the wagon, then put the stuff away in the larder with Nicky while Aaron settled the horses in the stables. Nicky caught him and Andrew up on a bunch of gossip, on a new royal marriage or two, some duels... and how the knight Kevin Day had fled the Raven's Nest in Evermore to take shelter in Palmetto's Foxhole Court.

Neil almost dropped the jars of blackberry preserve he was putting on the one shelf when he heard that, his left hand rising to touch the small raven brand magically burned onto his left cheek. "Keh-Kevin managed to escape?"

Nicky's expression turned to one of worry as he jerked his hand through his dark hair, disturbing the usually stylish short curls. "Oh shit, you knew him? Of course you knew him, why didn't I think of-"

/Nicky, _shut up_ ,/ Andrew commanded as his tail snaked into the larder to shove the mage aside and then curl around Neil's waist to pull him out. /You're an idiot./

Neil wasn't sure if that was meant for him or Nicky, but was grateful to be tucked against his lover's warm side. "Yeah, I knew him," he told Nicky as he wrapped his arms around Andrew's tail, his hands soothing over the fine scales that reminded him of supple snakeskin; had the stories of dragons always been wrong, or was it because Andrew was a cursed one, was really human deep down that his hide was so soft, the scales so fine and smooth to the touch even if they hard as diamonds. "He's Riko's foster brother, after all. Though he wasn't quite accorded as high a station as Riko or Ichiro." He shuddered as he thought about those couple of months at the Raven's Nest, at how Riko considered Neil - then Nathaniel - as property. All because Neil's father had promised him to the prince shortly after his birth in order to strengthen the alliance between their families.

"Well, rumor has it he arrived at the Foxhole Court in pretty bad shape." That was from Aaron as he came into the kitchen, busy dusting hay off of his black cloak. "So sounds as if your fiancé is still up to his old tricks."

"He's not my ‘anything’ anymore," Neil snapped as he once more rubbed at his cheek. Meanwhile, there were a good bit of sparks in the smoke Andrew blew at his twin, enough to make Aaron dance back as he swatted at the embers clinging to his cloak.

Nicky dragged his swearing cousin off so they could go clean up and put their gear away in their respective rooms on the second floor, while Neil led Andrew off to the banquet hall where they found a big enough sunbeam which they could curl up in together and take in the news. Neil hoped that Kevin was all right, that Riko hadn't hurt his old friend too much; there was only so much Kevin could have done for him, being the Moriyamas' foster son, but he'd at least cover for Neil whenever he could, would help him hide from Riko and sneak him food so he had the energy to cast a little bit of magic. Had snuck him the last few ingredients he'd needed to break the spell Riko had put on him to keep him trapped at the Nest so he could run away. In return, Neil had left him the enough of the potion in case Kevin ever got the courage to try for himself... and it seemed to have taken about two years and whatever Riko had done to him to find the nerve to finally do it.

/You’re thinking about him, about Day./

Neil trailed his fingers over Andrew’s wing. “I’m thinking about him and the Nest,” he admitted, which made him shiver despite the wonderful warmth radiating from his lover’s magicked body. “I never thought he’d find the strength to leave there – Tetsuji and Riko had him convinced that he’d never be anything without them.” That his earth magic, a legacy from his mother which leant him such strength and calmness during a fight, which allowed him to spot an enemy’s weakness, was nothing compared to Riko’s aether magic – even though the prince could only call upon his magic for the slight physical manipulation of objects. It wasn’t even comparable to the aether magic that Neil had inherited from his parents… which was probably why Riko had taken great delight in trying to break Neil. Why it had been so important for Neil to escape before his eighteenth birthday and when Riko could officially claim ‘Nathaniel’ as his.

/Stop thinking about them,/ Andrew ordered as the flat tip of his tail came to lightly tap against the side of Neil’s head. /You’re not going back even if I have fly there and burn the place to ashes./

Despite the chilling thought of Andrew being anywhere near the Raven’s Nest with its many wards and cadres of guards and… yeah, Neil wouldn’t let that happen, wouldn’t risk seeing just how impenetrable that curse really made his lover, he smiled as he snatched at the tyrant’s tail. “Way too much effort for a lazy bastard like you. I think that mage messed up the spell – you’ve got too much cat in you. Nothing better to do than sleep in sunbeams while I do all the real work around here.”

/And you have too big of a mouth for something so small,/ Andrew retorted as his tail once more curled around Neil’s waist and lifted him high up in the air, his favorite tactic when he wanted to be ‘intimidating’. Neil just folded his arms over his chest and frowned at the petty tyrant as he dangled about, spinning around a little.

“You’re having much too fun being bigger than everyone for most of the day. Just remember that when your family breaks the curse, you’ll go back to being all short again.”

/Not if I burn off your feet./ Andrew bared his impressive set of fangs in a dragon smile before he let out a small curl of flame.

“I can’t make you apple pies if I can’t climb the damn trees,” Neil reminded the bastard tyrant, just barely resisting the urge to zap his lover with a spell; it wouldn’t do much to Andrew’s golden hide, but it stung a little. Unfortunately, it would probably get him dropped in a hurry, and landing on the stone floors hurt like a bitch from this height.

/I can always shake them-/

“Oh for Luna’s sake – how many times do I have to tell you, Andrew, you don’t treat your honeybunch like that! Bad dragon! No wonder all those crazy knights think they need to rescue poor Neil!”

Neil found himself once more tucked between a set of dragon paws as Andrew shoved his head into his cousin’s face. /I find that entire statement of yours highly reprehensible. Never repeat any part of it again./ There was the heavy weight of his fire magic in the air while Nicky gave a nervous laugh.

Aaron was the one to break the tension, even while Neil did his best to stroke whatever part of Andrew’s neck he could reach. “Actually, I think it’s the fact that he spends most of the day inside a ruin of a castle with a dragon that’s the reason. If anyone knew he was sleeping with said dragon, they’d probably just try to burn the place down.”

Okay, maybe that didn’t help with the tension, Neil thought as he glared at Andrew’s twin – really, couldn’t that asshole mage have turned _Aaron_ into the damn dragon or something? Though considering his earth magic, he probably would have been a basilisk or a wyrm. “First, it’s not a ruin, and second, fuck you,” Neil spat. “You make it sound like I’m into bestiality or something.”

Aaron shrugged as he began pulling out various stones from the bag he’d brought with him, stones that probably were meant to help Andrew. “Just saying that there’s something about your taste in men when your latest boyfriend being a dragon is a step up.”

The spell that Neil had almost used on Andrew as a joke was dancing around his fingertips just then, except on Aaron it wouldn’t be a mostly painless jolt, it would rend flesh and bone. Neil caught himself just in time, forced himself to tamp down on the magic, to bank it even as it fought to burst forth, and then spun on his heel and ran out of the banquet hall for the bedroom, for somewhere other than where Aaron and Nicky were just then. Because they were too mortal and breakable for him to be around, not when the Wesninski temper flared to life.

He curled up in the bed he shared with Andrew when his lover was human in the dark hours of the night, burrowed beneath the sheets to fight off the chill in the room and within his chest, and did his best not to think about his parents and Riko and Kevin, about the past and what he’d left behind when he’d shed the name ‘Nathaniel’. When a cursed man had offered him sanctuary.

He’d almost fallen asleep when there was a soft knock at the door; Neil jolted back into full consciousness as Nicky crept inside, mindful of how Andrew didn’t care for other people in ‘his’ room. “Ah, we’re going to eat something soon. Casting spells really wore us out.” He offered Neil a weary smile.

“Okay.” Neil rubbed at his eyes as he pushed the blankets aside and sat up. “How… how did it go?”

“I think we might have gotten another hour added on,” Nicky proclaimed, some of his exhaustion fading away and an excited flush dusting pink onto the creamy, light brown hue of his skin. “It went really well!”

Neil smiled at the good news. “It’s wonderful, what you and Aaron are doing.” He could forgive Andrew’s brother for his cruel words earlier if it was true.

Nicky waved aside Neil’s praise. “Aw, it’ll be something when we finally break the damn thing.” He paused for a moment as Neil came over to his side. “Uhm, look, Aaron didn’t mean what he said earlier, all right? It’s just… he met someone a few months ago, and it’s wearing on him, us being on the road so much while looking for the real cure.” Nicky’s smile faltered a little. “If she’s the one, he’ll get used to it, like me and Erik, will realize that she’ll wait for him and the reunions just make things all the sweeter.”

“Still, it’s a lot to ask for, you guys wandering around so much and coming up here all the time,” Neil said as they left the bedroom.

“And it’s not for you to put up with your sweetie being in dragon form for most of the day?” Nicky shot back.

Neil felt a bit of heat on his face and shook his head. “But it’s still him, more or less, the entire day.” A few odd instincts aside, it was Andrew. The biting comments, the love of sweets, the dependability and sense of safety and understanding. “He’s still there for me.”

“And you for him.” Nicky shook his head. “We never got this far before you were here for him – you give him a reason to work with our magic.” Nicky grinned as he reached over to tousle Neil’s hair. “I have to admit, I’d have a problem if some asshole mage turned Eric into a hydra or something on me. I love him, but I want _him_ when we’re together.”

Neil didn’t know how to explain it – Andrew was Andrew to him, no matter what the shape. Yeah, there were certain things he couldn’t _do_ with his lover during the day, but if the worst happened and Andrew remained stuck in dragon form forever, Neil wasn’t going anywhere.

That said, he would be very happy when the curse was lifted, when they could leave the castle and go as far from Riko as possible, when they could do whatever they wanted to each other at any time of the day. When Andrew wouldn’t be able to dangle Neil in the air to help win arguments, or pin him to the floor with a very heavy paw to keep him in place. Yeah, that got old after a while, along with that weird hoarding/protective instinct. Neil had learned long ago that his lover was just inherently lazy, though.

If Aaron reeked a bit of smoke when Neil joined his lover and the earth mage in the large banquet hall… well, Neil kept that comment to himself, along with not remarking about the slight holes in Aaron’s black tunic and the singed lock or two of blond hair (Neil suspected that Aaron would be very grateful when the curse was broken, too, and he had less reason to visit his twin). Nicky helped Neil put together a very simple meal from the restocked larder, just some bread and cheese and cured ham for those in human form, and more sweet bread for Andrew along with a wheel of soft cheese and a pie. Andrew was a bit tired from whatever spells Nicky and Aaron had cast on him and slinked off to the bedroom after eating, while Neil remained with the other two for a bit longer, at least until the sun was about to set.

He then left them so he could spend the precious time with his lover, and smiled as always when Andrew returned to human form; it was a bit nerve-racking, after Nicky and Aaron ‘tweaked’ the curse. Neil worried that they might one day undo the bit of progress they’d made so far, but Andrew was human once more, and after some time to gather himself, he stretched out on the bed with Neil, where they spent the night alternating between talking and touching and catching quick cat-naps. Neil grew more and more anxious as the night wore on, but they reached the point where Andrew had always turned back to a dragon and then went past it, a faint smile curling on Andrew’s full lips as he leaned in to kiss Neil.

Nicky was correct in that ‘hour’ estimate, with Andrew almost lasting until right before dawn before the awful curse returned to steal him away from Neil. So close, they were getting so close. Neil wondered what would happen when the two broke past the barrier of dawn, when Andrew would once more remain human in the light of day. Would that make the curse weaker? Would it only be a matter of time then? He felt a faint stirring of hope as he once more curled up next to his lover’s supine dragon body and got a few hours of sleep.

They left the bedroom to find an anxious Nicky and sullen Aaron, and let the two know that whatever spell they’d cast had been among the most successful. Nicky wanted to try recasting it right away, while Aaron smacked his cousin and argued for them going back to do more research – they were on the right track, obviously, so it would be better for them to figure out what it was that was working rather than fumble around and maybe make a mistake. Nicky didn’t appear happy about it, but he soon saw the logic in what Aaron was saying. They agreed to stay one more night to rest up then head out the next morning; they’d brought enough food to last Andrew and Neil a few weeks, and Neil could always use an illusion spell to go into one of the nearby villages if they were gone longer than that, since he hadn’t ventured out for the last several months.

/Don’t get your hopes up,/ Andrew told Neil as he waved goodbye to his lover’s family the following day, mental voice oddly distant.

Neil looked up at his lover, who loomed above and behind him, golden wings tucked against his sides; Andrew was a long and slender dragon, which was good considering how old the castle was and that Neil knew nothing about architecture and construction, other than how to bring a place down on an enemy’s head – really, his parents had fucked up ideas of what to teach a kid. But what did one expect, when he was to have been handed off to a second-born prince as a means to… ‘ensure’ the longevity of a kingdom by rather unsavory methods.

“I’m not,” he assured Andrew. “Not too much, at least,” he clarified as he reached up to scratch that certain spot beneath the tyrant’s chin. “But it’ll be so nice when you don’t have any more excuses to get out of doing the laundry or washing the dishes.”

/Good luck with that,/ Andrew argued, his inner eyelids coming up to cover his cat-like eyes. /I never did them before, I won’t do them now./

“I’m beginning to wonder if _I’m_ the one who’s cursed,” Neil teased, and laughed as the damn tail snaked around his waist to lift him up. “Oh come _on_!”

/I think it’s time for your daily bath – in the lake,/ Andrew told him, and actually flew him off to the damn lake, where he dangled Neil above it close enough for the tips of Neil’s auburn hair to get wet, until Neil promised to make him some more pies. Then joined him in the kitchen after Neil picked more apples, where Neil sat on the counter with his bare feet resting on Andrew’s lower back (the heat felt wonderful) while they argued over one of the more recent books they’d finished. It was a good day. As was the next, where they started a new book, with Neil content to spend the day nestled in pillows and tucked against Andrew’s side with a silk-like wing draped over him, and pretend that the world didn’t exist outside of their castle. That his life hadn’t begun before he’d been ‘Neil’.

So of course something had to come along to ruin things after a bit of a stretch like that, to drag the past into the present. Neil had just finished having a nice soak in the bathing tub, having spent a good portion of the time flicking water at Andrew and watching his lover turn the droplets into steam, when he felt a tremor through the castle’s wards. He tensed for a moment, and then went running for the main entrance, having to flatten against the wall when Andrew raced ahead of him.

Neil nearly stumbled when he found two women standing just outside of the wards, both of them dressed in the white and orange of Palmetto, one a knight and another a paladin, which explained why the wards were taking such a powerful hit. The knight glared up at Andrew while holding a long, slender sword in her right hand, not a trace of fear to be found on her face, while the paladin stood beside her, a glow of silver aether magic around her hands and expression calm.

“Where is Nathaniel Wesninski?” the knight called out. “Nathaniel, come out, we’re here for you.”

Neil winced upon hearing his birth name, while Andrew reared up on his hind legs, his wings fanning out. /Fuck off./

The knight appeared startled to hear Andrew ‘speak’, her dark eyes going wide, while the paladin continued to ‘hammer’ at the wards. “Nathaniel?”

“Stop calling me that!” Neil shouted as he crept forward, pressed against Andrew’s side. “Go the hell away! I’m not leaving!”

The knight’s expression became even more incredulous upon hearing him, her dark eyes gone wide. “Uhm, kid? That’s a fucking dragon there, you do know that?”

“No shit,” Neil snapped at her while Andrew’s tail curled up around his feet. “Now leave the damn wards alone and go away, I don’t care how rich Riko can make you.” He turned his glare at the paladin and began to gather his magic to try to disrupt what she was doing.

“We’re not here because of Riko,” the paladin told him, her hands still glowing, the silver color the same as her odd hair, “but because of Kevin.”

It was Neil’s turn to be surprised, but it didn’t stop him from unleashing his spell, it just had him alter the target a little so it hit the ground around the paladin rather than the woman herself; she let out a startled gasp as the earth near her feet began to disintegrate, which threw off her concentration and made her stop fucking with the wards.

“What the hell?” the knight called out as she dropped her sword and grabbed at her companion to steady the paladin.

“I told you, go away,” Neil shouted in a mix of anger and upset. “Why can’t you people understand that I’m not being held here against my will, I don’t need to be rescued, that I’m not some hapless idiot!”

/That last bit is debatable,/ Andrew murmured, hopefully just inside of Neil’s head.

“Not helping,” Neil snapped at his lover. “So just go away and leave us alone! Find a damn cat stuck up a tree or better yet, go overthrow the Moriyamas if you want to be really helpful!”

“Natha- kid,” the knight said when Neil’s hands began to glow again, “you’re stuck with a _dragon_.” She spoke the words slow and loud, as if talking to an imbecile. “A talking dragon.”

“By my choice,” Neil gritted out. “And trust me, he’s a thousand times better than some princes I know.” Then he let out a yelp when he got hit by a tail in the abdomen.

/Only a thousand? Guess who’s heating his own water for the next month,/ Andrew told him with a rather quiet yet snide mental voice before turning around and slinking off.

“What? Oh hell, you know what I meant!” Neil shouted at his offended lover before he glared at the two interlopers. “Great, just great! You have any idea how much baking I’m going to have to do to get him in a better mood? So much for getting any laundry done in the next day or two.” He threw another spell at the women, creating another crater in the ground, before he stomped off to attempt to cajole his lover. As he left, he heard the paladin murmuring to the knight about something.

As expected, it was a rather cold rest of the day, thanks to Andrew taking offense at being only ‘marginally’ better than Riko (what the hell?). Neil would be lobbing spells left and right at the bastard, except he noticed that Andrew used the distance between them to position himself at one of the few higher vantage points that did support his massive weight to watch the two women as they set up camp outside.

So Neil strengthened the wards as much as possible, throwing in a few nasty tricks his mother had taught him, and come sundown, Andrew joined him in their bed. He was quiet and pretty much told Neil to shut up and go to sleep, but he stroked his fingers through Neil’s hair as Neil gave in to the exhaustion from expending so much magic that day. When he felt Andrew’s curse re-exert itself, he lay down with his lover for an hour or two before he snuck off, an illusion spell wrapped around him, and went to gather some more apples and pears.

He’d mostly picked enough when the paladin came to stand at the bottom of the one apple tree that had the sweetest apples. Neil sighed and debated dropping a particularly ripe one on her head as she smiled up at him. “Of course you can see through the damn spell.”

“It’s rather good,” she assured him. “It takes a lot of effort, but Kevin told me about your talents and your mother.” Her smile faltered a little right then, especially when Neil went still. “I’m sorry. My name is Renee, Renee Walker, it’s nice to meet you, Natha-“

“Don’t call me that,” he told her, his voice harsh. “I’m not – that’s not my name anymore. I left it all behind.” Left behind the titles and everything related to his father that he could, that tied him to Riko, when he’d run from Evermore.

Renee blinked at him then gave a slight nod as she tucked back a strand of silver hair. Had her magic bleached out the color? “All right, what shall I call you, then?”

Neil tossed the apple in the air a couple of times but put it in the bag in the end. “Neil. I’m Neil, now.”

“Neil.” She cocked her head to the side as she stared up at him and then smiled. “Yes, it suits you. It’s nice to meet you, Neil.”

Were all paladins as odd as this one? Neil had always avoided them in the past – well, they’d avoided his father’s estate, considering what his father was, and then Neil and his mother had avoided them so the holy warriors couldn’t see through their illusions and reveal who they really were. “So, are you going to drag me down or call your friend so you can haul me off to Palmetto?”

Renee shook her head. “No, I thought you needed to do that baking to appease your companion.” She took a step back, as if to let Neil jump down to the ground. “He’s not a normal dragon, is he?”

Neil eyed the woman with a lot of caution and a bit of distrust. “Uhm, no, he’s someone who got cursed into the form. You really aren’t going to drag me away?”

“I swear on Mina, the goddess of Mercy and Healing, that I won’t,” Renee promised as she held up her glowing right hand. “As Dan said, we came here because Kevin Day was worried about you. But it seems to me that you’re all right, and what better place to keep you safe from Prince Riko than in a dragon’s lair, no?”

Normally Neil didn’t trust a stranger’s word, but Renee, a paladin, had just sworn to what he took to be her goddess so he should be fine. If not, he’d just have that many more pies to bake, he supposed as he jumped down with care, considering the bag and basket of fruit. “Well, more a rundown castle than lair, but yeah, exactly. He’s all that’s keeping Riko’s people at bay, though the reward isn’t helping things.” Why the hell Riko just didn’t find someone else to marry, Neil didn’t know as he brushed his left shoulder against his cheek. Though the gods pity whoever accepted that offer.

Renee walked with him back up the mountain, and they talked a little about their magic, how it came from the same source yet had such different outcomes. Neil wasn’t certain how he felt about Renee, there was something… he felt a little on edge around her, but she appeared earnest about keeping her word to not take him from Andrew and everything he’d heard about Palmetto and the Foxhole Court in particular was that it was the opposite of Evermore, that it was mostly good.

The castle was almost in sight when he heard an angry roar, letting him know that Andrew was definitely furious about something, which made him burst into a run, the basket clutched against his chest. Renee attempted to keep up with him but he was faster, so he came upon the sight of Andrew hovering above the knight – Dan, according to Renee – raining down fire upon the woman. Since Dan appeared to be a fire elemental herself, she just managed to protect herself, but it was clear that Andrew was the more powerful of the two and it wouldn’t be long before his flames won out.

“Hey! Uhm, stop that!” Neil yelled as he set the basket down on the ground; the stench of burnt humans was _awful_ and he didn’t want to have to deal with it whenever he came out into the courtyard. Plus, Nicky would probably cry when he found out. “Both of you!”

/Neil?/ Andrew stopped with the whole flambé thing and looked over at him, and then those glowing hazel eyes narrowed in a not so good manner for Neil. /You fucking idiot, you’re not kidnapped?/

“No?” Neil said with a nervous smile. “Uhm, good morning?”

Andrew hovered in the air for a few seconds, his wings stirring up dirt and fallen leaves as they beat up and down, and then he let out a huge plume of smoke. /I hate you, let these two pests cart you off to Palmetto. See how long it takes for you to drive them insane./ That ‘said’, his wings gave a huge downbeat and he went off soaring into the sky.

Renee came over to stare up at Andrew’s departing form. “I see, that really is a very powerful curse, isn’t it?”

“I’m beginning to wonder if it’s contagious,” Neil ground out as he barely resisted kicking the basket of fruit. “Dammit.” Maybe he was going to be stuck with cold baths for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, Dan appeared to recover from her near-death experience and came over to him and Renee. “Okay, I don’t know what happened just there, but let’s get going. You don’t need anything from here, right? We can just pick up some things for you on the road,” she told Neil. When he and Renee just stood there staring at her, she let out a loud sound of frustration. “Hello! Dragon! Very, very pissed off dragon! Let’s go!”

“Oh Dan, we talked about this,” Renee said with a weary sigh. “Things aren’t what they seem here.”

Dan rubbed her gloved hand over her cropped dark brown hair, which made it stand up in dirty spikes because of the sweat and dirt. “I don’t care that this dragon is a bit ‘odd’, we came here to rescue Nathaniel-“

“ _Neil_ ,” both Neil and Renee said at the same time.

“-and that’s what we’re going to do!” Dan finished with a shout.

“Have fun with that,” Neil said as he walked past her toward the castle. “Just try and I’ll blow your hands off.”

“I don’t think he’s joking,” Renee added. “Best not to chance it.” Then she hurried to catch up to him. “Want some help with the baking?”

“Uhm, I could use a little,” Neil said, surprised at the offer. “There’s a lot of stuff to peel.” Renee smiled at him while he waved at the wards to let her pass.

“Really? You’re _helping_ him bake for that monster?”

Renee frowned as she turned around to look at her thunder-struck friend. “It’s what I do. Are you going to help us peel the apples, too?”

Dan looked about three seconds away from throwing her sword at something, before she gritted her teeth together. “Oh what the hell,” she finally muttered and approached the wards. “You’re always right, dammit.”

“That’s the spirit,” Renee told her with a pleased smile.

When she came to a halt in front of the wards, Neil frowned. “No weapons,” he told her.

Dan didn’t appear happy about that, but after a nod from Renee, she sighed and tucked her sword and a few knives, one of them enchanted, safely out of the way before she waited for Neil to allow her past the wards. “You really are here of your own free will?”

“For the last time, _yes_ ,” he snapped. “I came here seeking refuge from Riko’s people, who were chasing me to take me back to Evermore so I’d marry the bastard against my will, and discovered that Andrew was already here.” Maybe if he told them the truth, they really would leave him and Andrew alone. “He was nice enough to let me stay, intending for it to just be a few days until I,” Neil gave a slight shrug, not liking to think how exhausted and hurt he’d been back then, drained of magic and bearing wounds from the run-ins he’d had with the prince’s people, “well, until I was able to move on… and somehow, that never happened.” Because during one of the times Neil had crept down for water, Andrew had traded him a truth in exchange for heating it up, and found out why Neil had sought shelter. Found out about Neil running from Riko, and then more truths had been exchanged for more magical favors. Neil had strengthened the wards for the story about Andrew’s curse, and his short stay had spread out over weeks, had turned into months as trust had developed as well as an odd sort of affection between them. When Neil had discovered that he could feel _that_ way about another… er, well, person.

Renee beamed at Dan. “See, I told you there’s more here than meets the eye. And Andrew’s special. There’s some sort of spell on him, a curse. I can just make it out if I look at him long enough.”

“Huh.” Dan’s fine brows drew together as Neil led the two young women into the large but rather bare kitchen. “What’s the story behind that? It takes a lot of magic to shift someone’s shape.”

Neil shook his head as he set the first the basket and then the bag of fruit down on the long counter running along most of the room. “No, sorry, that’s his story to tell.” He’d already upset his lover enough over the last two days, he wasn’t going to go all winter without hot water; Andrew was a very private person so Neil wasn’t going to tell any more tales than necessary.

“Argh, so damn frustrating!” Dan complained while she stood there as Neil searched out enough pairing knives for the three of them, then looked for a couple of bowls; he really was used to it just being him in the large room. “So what about you? Everyone was shocked to hear that Prince Riko had this fiancé from out of the blue, since so few people knew that Lord Wesninski even had a son.” When all Neil did was give her a blank look when he handed over a knife, done talking about his past, she sighed. “Why am I not surprised?”

“We’re here to help make pies,” Renee chided the knight.

“We’re _here_ to rescue – you know what? I give up. This is what I get for bringing you along. None of our missions ever go according the plan,” Dan complained, her tone a bit sulky despite the quirk to her lips. “You know what happened when we went to clear out a pack of wyverns just south of Breckenridge?” she asked Neil, who of course had no clue. “We ended up finding new homes for the damn things. Seemed some farmers were lying about the damage the poor things were causing because they wanted some land cleared, and _she_ ,” Dan jerked her thumb at a smiling Renee, “just had to figure out the truth.”

“You would have felt terrible, taking an innocent life,” Renee murmured, and there was something to her eyes as she spoke, a gleam of darkness, that made Neil shift in his spot on the counter, that made him suspect that Renee knew about what she spoke.

“Yeah, well, that set of leather armor was never the same again,” Dan griped. “Damn things chewed the shit out of it.” Still, she was smiling as she peeled away. “And the _trolls_!”

Renee started to hum in happiness at that, so Neil had a feeling he better settle in for some storytelling. He wasn’t disappointed, even if he had to duck a couple of times to avoid Dan’s wild gestures (and she wasn’t that great at peeling despite being a knight and used to handling bladed weapons. Renee, on the other hand, managed the skins in perfect curls).

Dan stared on in obvious fascination while Renee rolled out the dough and Neil mixed the pears and apples with the various spices (he had a feeling that Renee could make much better pies than him, but Andrew was used to his too sweet pastries by then), when Andrew’s golden form suddenly appeared in the kitchen.

“What the fuck?” Dan yelped, her hand falling to her hip for her missing sword.

Meanwhile, Renee gave him one of her sweeter smiles. “Hello! We’re almost done with the baking.”

Small streams of smoke emerged from Andrew’s nostrils. /You let them past the wards. Your constant lack of self-preservation utterly stuns me./

Neil sighed as he grabbed a clean cloth to wipe his hands. “Renee promised that she wouldn’t try to run off with me, and Dan’s unarmed, all right?”

Renee waved her right hand. “I’m Renee, and she’s Dan.” She motioned at Dan, who was staring at Andrew with some sort of sick fascination. “It’s all right, really. I can’t go back on my word without my goddess being very upset at me. Besides, it’s clear that Neil belongs here, and I couldn’t do something that would hurt him.” She cocked her head to the side as she considered Andrew. “Or you.”

Andrew let out a loud snort at that. /Aren’t you just precious?/

“No, not really, but I swore an oath to no longer hurt people, not without just cause. And there’s no reason to hurt the two of you, right?” She stepped forward as if to better face Andrew, and when Dan cursed and made to stop her friend, Neil rushed forward to grab onto the knight’s left arm.

“No,” he said; he might be smaller than Dan, but he wasn’t weak. Years of looking after himself, of defending himself, made him stronger than he appeared – and then there was his father’s blood. All that made him strong enough to hold her back so Andrew could bend his neck down and look Renee in the eye, his massive head a mere foot or two away from hers, and whatever he saw there made him give a much quieter snort. Maybe a hint of that darkness that Neil had glimpsed before, or maybe a touch of the magic that had made Neil believe in Renee’s oath to let him stay at the castle.

/When will the pies be ready?/ Andrew asked as he slinked past Renee to come further into the kitchen; Dan let out a loud gasp when his tail curled around Neil and pulled him away from the knight.

“We’re almost done – are you going to fire up the ovens?” Neil smiled as he was set back on the counter before Andrew craned his neck to light the large, ancient ovens, already stocked with wood, and resumed mixing the bowlfuls of fruit fillings so they could go into the pie shells that Renee was preparing. She smiled at him while Dan just shook her head and looked at the two of them as if they were crazy, then at the very large gold lump that took up most of the kitchen.

Dan and Renee stayed the night, grateful to be out of the cold. They enjoyed some food and a hot bath (Andrew budged on the hot water thing, but told Neil he had a lot of reading aloud in his future), then Renee approached Andrew to study the magic that bound him in his dragon form for a good while before nodding and jotting down notes for Aaron and Nicky.

“It really is a very powerful spell. Your family must care for you a lot to devote so much time and energy to breaking it,” she said, to which Andrew just gave her a long stare in return.

It was a quiet night once the sun went down, Andrew seeming lost in thought and Neil aware of their ‘guests’, but it was just nice of them to be able to lay together in bed, for Neil to feel Andrew’s arms around him and his lover’s fingers stroking through his hair. For him to have Andrew lay with his head in Neil’s lap while Neil read a few chapters to him.

Neil felt tired the next day when he saw Renee and Dan off, wrapped in one of Andrew’s wings against the morning chill like a golden cloak. “If you cut through the plum grove, there’s an old goat path that’ll take you down the mountain faster,” he told the women.

“Thank you,” Dan told him with a smile. “Look, we can’t do too much about everyone coming here to collect the reward, but we’ll spread the word in Palmetto, all right? At least you won’t get any knights from the Foxhole Court trying to haul you out of here or brag about taking down a dragon.”

/Good, because I can’t stand the sight of so much orange and white,/ Andrew told her.

“Why the hell would anyone want to curse such a cheerful person like you?” Dan asked, then let out a yelp when Andrew shot a small flame at her feet. “Asshole.”

“Here’s a small charm to help with the wards, sorry for trying to take them down,” Renee told Neil as she handed over a fresh charm bag. “And if things ever get too bad here, you’re both welcome at the Foxhole Court, remember that.”

Neil thanked her, then waved goodbye to them both as they headed on their way. Once they were out of the courtyard, he wasn’t surprised to find himself picked up and hauled back into the castle, where he got started on restoring his lover’s good mood (or what passed as a good mood for Andrew).

Dan might have promised to stop the Palmetto knights from harassing them, but over the next couple of weeks, it seemed like every other day a new idiot had to show up on their doorstep, ready to ‘rescue’ Neil. Part of it was due to winter approaching and sealing off the mountain to the stupid attempts to kidnap Neil, but Neil supposed that the Moriyamas were probably pissed off over Kevin running away and wanted to regain face in one form or another. That probably didn’t bode well for him and Andrew in the long run… but one problem at a time.

So Neil left the idiots to Andrew since he was afraid that he might unleash the wrong types of spells against them, let Andrew pick them up and drop them into the ice-fed lake after scaring them senseless (well, there had been the one who hadn’t known how to swim, but the naiads had saved her after only a bit of rough play. Neil didn’t think she’d be back any time soon, and the naiads were rather happy about how much fun they were having lately).

“Maybe… maybe I should move on, come spring,” he said to Andrew one night as they lay in bed together, his voice tiny as he forced himself to speak despite the pain in his chest. He didn’t want to leave what had become his home, didn’t want to abandon _Andrew_ … but the thought of one of those knights hurting his lover to get at him was too much.

Andrew was quiet for several seconds, the only sound that of the crackling fire, and then Neil found himself flat on his back with Andrew looming over him, his lover’s hazel eyes glowing in the room’s dim light. “If you want to end this, that’s one thing. But if you’re being a damn martyr, a stupid damn martyr at that, then _no_. Do you want to end this?”

Neil had to swallow past a throat gone tight. “No,” he finally managed to whisper.

“Then you stay, you damn idiot,” Andrew told him as he leaned in. “We’ll figure something out. No more running.” His lips brushed against Neil’s before he asked, “yes or no”, and Neil moaned out his answer as he buried his fingers in his lover’s hair and pulled him down all the way.

It was incredible, how many times Andrew could break him down, could break him apart, in those hours between sundown and sunrise. Neil barely had the energy to care when yet another knight was carried off screaming that morning, especially since he’d just used up the last of the tea. Hmm, did the asshole have a horse anywhere? Maybe some supplies? But that would mean he’d have to go about looking, and Andrew’s dragon instincts were in full swing at the moment, which wasn’t good. Dammit. Probably not a good time to see if Neil could manage a quick run into Columbia, the nearest village. With his luck, there’d be a paladin roaming about, maybe one as powerful as Renee.

Thankfully, he was spared having to push the issue with Nicky and Aaron’s return later that day (especially with the fruit trees picked clean for the season – Neil had a few baskets stashed away for the upcoming months, and would have to rely upon preserves to get his lover through the leaner times). Hearing the familiar whinny of their cart horse, Neil paused in his sweeping to go run out into the courtyard, only to find an annoyed Andrew rearing up with his wings extended.

Nicky and Aaron… had a guest. A guest wearing familiar colors of white and orange, a rather tall young man with spiky dark hair who stared at Andrew with evident fascination; he looked like a knight to Neil, judging from the broadsword strapped to his back.

“Wow, Renee was right, he’s _incredible_ ,” the young man breathed out.

/What the hell is _he_ doing here?/ Andrew hissed, his entire being radiating displeasure.

“Uhm, you see, we ran into trouble on the road and he helped us out! He’s Matt du Boyd, and he’s really nice and hot and he comes in handy, and he swears he won’t cause any trouble, something about some message one of his friends sent?” Nicky said in a rush as he first gave Andrew a nervous smile and then Neil a pleading look even as Neil ended up wrapped up several times by Andrew’s tail until he couldn’t move at all.

“A dragon,” Matt said, as if oblivious to Nicky’s explanation. “A talking dragon. Amazing.”

“Five days of him,” Aaron ground out. “ _Five_ days. You get to suffer him now,” he told his brother as he unhooked the horse from the wagon. “Have fun.”

Judging from the smoke pouring from Andrew’s nostrils, Neil’s lover was highly displeased at the moment. And judging from the way Andrew twisted his neck to look at _Neil_ , somehow this was going to be blamed on _him_ – why, he had no clue, but yeah. His fault. Probably because he hadn’t blown up Renee when he had the chance or something.

“Cold bath today?” Neil said with a tired voice as he tried not to shiver, feeling chills already.

/Oh yes, yes indeed,/ Andrew agreed. /You and Nicky,/ he declared as he headed back to the castle, Neil still carried in his tail.

Andrew’s cousin squawked upon hearing that. “Aw, come on! You know I’m a sucker for a pretty face! Why do I have to suffer, too? I’m delicate! Think how it’ll affect my spellcasting, Andrew! Andrew? Neil, talk some sense into him!”

Meanwhile, Matt followed them, still grinning the entire time. “Wow, how does he do that tail thing? And this castle? Love the rustic look going on. I’m so glad I didn’t go to Belmonte with Allison! Wait until she hears about this!”

Neil was rethinking that whole ‘cursed’ theory.

******* 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, to explain some things. Dragon Andrew is a little different from human Andrew. He's Andrew, but with a couple of dragon instincts layered on top (he doesn't hoard gold or jewels, he hoards Neils. Lucky Neil).
> 
> And no, Neil never physically wants dragon Andrew. But yes, he emotionally became attached to Andrew in that form.
> 
> Okay, hope to get as much writing of WDWG while traveling and during downtime while in Atlanta this weekend, but we'll see. As soon as the new chapter is done and cleaned up, I will post!
> 
> As always, any comments and kudos are appreciated!  
> *******


End file.
